Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-10-20
ALLAN QUARTERNAIN.
OR
A BROWNING CITY

On the brow of this precipice stood a
great building OF the same granite that
formed the cliff, built on three sides of a
square. the fourth side being open, save
for a kind OF battlement pierced at its base
by a little door This imposing place we
afterwaru discovered was the palace of the
queen or rather of the queens. At the
back Of the palace the town sloped gently
upward to flashing building of white
marble, crowned by the golden dome
which we had already observed The city
was witii the exception of this one build
ing, entirely built of red granite, and laid
out in regular blocks with splendid road
ways between. So far as we could see,
also, the houses were all one-storied and
detached. with gardens round them, which
gave some relief to the eye Wearied with
the sight of red granite. At the back OF
the palace, a road Of extraordinary width
stretched away up the hill for distance
Of a mile and half or 50, and appeared
TO terminate at an open face surrounding
the cleaning building that crowned the
hill. But right III front of us was the
browning wonder and glory Of iilosis-the
great staircase Of the palace The magnifi-
cence Of which fairly took our breath
away. Let the reader imagine, ii he can,
a splendid stairway, siXty-five feet from
balustraae TO baIustrade consisting OF two
vast flights. each of one hundred and
twenty-five steps of eight inches in height
by three feet broad, connected by flat
resting-place sixty feet in length, and run
ming from the palace wall on the edge OF
the precipica down to meet o waterway,
or canal, cut to it's foot from the river.
This marvellous staircase was supported
upon q single enormous granite arch, OF
which the resting place between the two
flights formed the crown; that is, the con-
Meeting open space lay upon it. From this
archway sprang subsidiary flying arch,
or, rather, something that resembled
flying arch in shape, such as none OF us
had seen in any other country, and OF
which the beauty and wonder surpassed
all that we had ever imagined. Three
hundred feet from point to point, and no
less than five hundred and fifty round the
curve, that half-arc scared, touching the
bridge it supported for space Of fifty feet
only, one end resting on and built into the
parent archway, and the other imbedded
in the solid granite of the side of the preci-
pice.
This staircase and its supports formed,
kl.
might have been proud, both on account
of it's magnitude and surprising beauty.
Four times, as we afterward learnt, did
the work. which was commenced in re-
mote antiquity, fail 1t was then aban-
doned for three centuries, when half I'm
ished, till at last there arose a youthful
engineer named Rademas, who said that
he would complete it successfully, and
staked his life upon it. If he failed, he
was to be hurled from the precipice he had
undertaken to scale; if he succeeded, he
was to be rewarded by the hand Of the
hnt Is e6be me ET Wo TeaFs Tas gnfn to
ed supply of labor and material Three
times did his arch fall; and at last, seeing
failure to be inevitable, he determined to
commit suicide on the morrow of the third
collapse. That night, however, q beauti-
full woman came to him in q dream and
touched his forehead, and of a sudden he
saw a vision of the completed work, and
saw too through the masonry, and how
the difficulties connected with the flying
arch, that had hitherto baff1ed his genius,
were to be overcome. Then he awoke and
once more commenced the work, but on a
different plan, and beholdl he achieved it;
and on the last day of the five years he led
the princess, his bride, up the stair and in
to the palace. In due course he became
king by right of his wife, and founded the
present Zu-vendi dynasty, which is to this
day called the House of the Stairway"
thus proving once more how energy and
talent are the natural stepping stones to
grandeur; and to commemorate his tri-
umph, he fashioned statue of himself
dreaming, and of the fair woman who
touched him on the forehead, and placed
it in the great hall of the palace; and there
it stands to this day.
Such was the great stair of Milosis, and
such the city beyond. No wonder they
called it the browning City," for certainly
those mighty works in solid granite did
seem to frown down upon our Httleness in
their somber splendor. This was so even
in the sunshine; but when the storm clouds
gathered on her imperial brow, Milosis
looked more like u supernatural dwelling
place, or some imagining of a poets brain,
than what she iS-a mortal city, carved by
the patient genius of generations out OF
the red silence of the mountain-side.
s,Trar